Much chatter today about the horrendous attacks on Saturday in Arizona. In The New York Times Paul Krugmam says that if the shootings bring the hysterical Right to modify their strategy of hate, perhaps some good will come of what happened. He ends ups his column: "If it doesn’t, Saturday’s atrocity will be just the beginning."
I certainly hope this Arizona incident will lead to postive change, but I'm also trying to think of a left wing extremist who killed anybody in the US--a country where presidents, dissidents and celebraties have all too often been the target of would-be assassins bullets. Certainly not since the 1970s, I think. Then bombs set by the Weather Undground killed three or four. In 1981 John Hinckley tried to kill President Ronald Reagan, but his aim wasn't political but a misguided attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster.
This record says a lot about who is really destructive in the US, and it ain't the left wing, every the left wing fringe. It is the right, many of whom are encouraged by a multitude of special interest groups through Fox News and others.
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But wasn't John Hinkley a former member of the American Nazi Party, and expelled for being ... too violent?
Sure, he was a nutcase, and like many of these guys loner who could never develop human relationships, but (this is only from memory) I think he thought Reagan wasn't far-right enough.
There is nothing about that in Wikipedia. I googled John Hinkley Nazi and got several hits, but so far nothing really reliable.
This would put his squarely in the "Violent nut on the right" category.
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